880 The American Naturalist. [November, 
the whole question at issue, for it has been my contention that 
implements such as were described by Mr. Holmes have been 
found in many parts of the United States and nearly all over 
Europe, and have in the latter country always been treated 
as finished implements belonging to the Paleolithic period; 
and I respectfully submit that my side of the case is not to 
be overturned by a declaration made with whatever loudness 
or clamor, or with whatever positiveness and determination, 
and which, while declared as a fact, is naught but an assertion. 
After having described the manufacture, closing with the 
third process, the making of the leaf-shaped implements, he 
says, page 13, “ Having followed the process to the end, I wish 
to call especial attention to the fact, if my theory be correct, that 
when this thin blade was realized, the work of this shop and 
the only work of this shop was ended.” I ask—What right has 
Mr. Holmes to make this statement? What evidence is there 
of it? How can he know its truth? How can he know that 
the “turtle-back ” may not have been intentional on the part 
of the workman, as well as the leaf-shaped blade? How can 
he know aught about the intention of the workman except, as 
can every other person, from the implements themselves and 
the condition in which they are found and the objects with 
which they are associated? Continuing, “The process and 
the machinery had accomplished all that was asked of them 
and all that they were capable of accomplishing.” 
What evidence of truth have we in these assertions? Again, 
“the neat, but withal rude blades, and they only, were carried 
away and to destinies which we may yet reveal,” p.13. Who knows 
what blades were carried away, and what blades only were 
carried away? Is this not an unwarranted assumption? 
“ Further work, additional shaping, employed other processes, 
and was carried on in other fields.” Why? How? In what 
fields? What further work? What additional shaping ? 
What processes? Where carried? And who knows aught 
about it? Ifthe writer of these statements had been himself 
a first-cousin of the paleolithic man and personally present 
with his kinsman at the close of the Glacial epoch, making 
notes and sketches of the quarry workshop of Piney Branch, 
